#drinkingaboutmuseums – Sydney – 4 September 2013

Today Seb Chan and Aaron Cope dropped news of one of the coolest things I’ve heard in musetech circles in some time. The Cooper-Hewitt has acquired Planetary – it’s first piece of code – to be preserved as a living object. This is such an interesting idea, and one that fits right into my own ideas about what museums need to be doing and confronting in an era of networked knowledge. I am going to spend a few days sitting with their post and thinking through its implications further before I respond fully, but this is a perfect excuse for plugging next week’s #drinkingaboutmuseums in Sydney, because Seb himself is going to be in appearance. This also means that if you haven’t been to a #drinkingaboutmuseums in a while, it will be a really great one to attend.

So, if you’re a museum/art gallery/culture professional – or student – located in or near Sydney, you should come along. If you haven’t been to a #DAM event before, get in contact with me and I’ll send you my phone number so you can locate us. Or you can follow the #drinkingaboutmuseums hashtag on Twitter for updates in the lead-up to the event.

The Cooper-Hewitt’s decision to acquire their first piece of code is a really important one, and bound to spark a significant amount of conversation in the sector. This is a great opportunity to talk about it. It’s also a chance to build stronger internal networks within the museum community here in Australia, which is so important.

Earlier tonight I attended the Sydney Open Research meeting and launch of the Open Knowledge Foundation Network Australia – a really important organisation doing great work to open up knowledge. I’ll talk more on this later, but being in the room tonight with a group of passionate, interested people all working on great projects left me really inspired, and renewed my appreciation for the value of informal connections and networks. It’s one of the reasons I’m so excited about the fact that #drinkingaboutmuseums has becomes something of a regular thing. So do come along.

And as always, a quick note about the nomenclature… Despite it’s somewhat US-centric name, #drinkingaboutmuseums is not just about object-based museums. It definitely includes art people, or anyone interested in the GLAM and cultural sectors. Hope to see you there!